What's New - October 1999

As a research site, EBRI Online maintains old listings in the
"Whats New" page, even though some of the older links may no longer
function. If you reach a bad link, go back to the main site by deleting everything after
".com" or ".org" or ".net" in the address. Since we maintainwww.ebri.org as a research and education resource,
and not current news, we hope you will understand our policy and the use for which it is
maintained.

What's new at EBRI this month:

The EBRI Issue Brief
and EBRI Notes for the month of
October are available online for ordering. The October Issue Brief is entitled
"Health Care Consolidation and the Changing Health Care Marketplace: A Review of the
Literature and Issues." The October
Notes articles are "Prescription Drugs Utilization and Physician
Visits" and "Lump-Sum Distributions Total $87.2 Billion in 1995."

1999 Health Confidence Survey
(HCS): Press Release Outlines Preliminary EBRI HCS Findings from EBRI 's
Survey Which Examines Americans' Confidence in the Health Care System click here to go to a page with links to the
Survey Questionnaire, a later press release, and Fact Sheets from the results of the
survey:

If a title link above no longer works, click
here for the GAO Index of Reports and Testimony, FY99, and search for the report by
entering words or phrases from the title. Reports will also be added to GAO's
searchable WAIS database in ASCII and PDF formats within 24 hours of the original
posting. Any individual report may be retrieved directly in text and PDF formats with the
following URL: http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?RPTNO replacing RPTNO with the report
number (e.g., GAO/OCG-98-1).

If your computer does not already have the free Adobe Acrobat viewer
software to read PDF files, click
here for the one-time download necessary to read PDF publications.

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(10/29/99) Click
here to read the Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate of October 28, 1999, on the
Health Information Confidentiality Act of 1999: Chairman's Mark of June 11, 1999.

(10/28/99) The Bureau of Labor Statistics has posted the complete bulletin titled: Employee
Benefits in Medium and Large Private Establishments, 1997. Go to the
Publications and Other Documentation section of the Employee
Benefits Survey page to find the link to the PDF of the bulletin.

(10/28/99) "The 1999
Annual Employer Health Benefits Survey is undertaken jointly by the Kaiser Family
Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. The survey was formerly
conducted by KPMG Peat Marwick from 1991 to 1998. The survey tracks changes in
employer-based health care coverage."

(10/26/99) The
Fairmodel "site brings the power of large scale macroeconometric analysis to
anyone with access to the internet. It is a resource for business forecasters, government
policy analysts, macroeconomic researchers, teachers, and students."

(10/25/99) Recent
Trends in Compensation Practices (July 1999) by David Lebow, Louise Sheiner, Larry
Slifman, and Martha Starr-McCluer is from the Finance and Economics Discussion Series of
the Federal Reserve Board.

(10/22/99) "Representative Lazio (R-NY) has introduced H.R. 3081, "The Wage
and Employment Growth Act of 1999," which includes all of the pension reform measures
previously included in Title XII of H.R. 2488, the tax bill vetoed by President Clinton in
September." Click
here for an Investment Company Institute analysis of the pension provisions of the
bill.

(10/22/99) Announcement
99-95 contains The Internal Revenue Services's determination that the applicable
number of Medical Savings Account (MSA) returns filed for 1998 is 32,371 and that the
applicable number of MSA returns projected to be filed for 1999 is 44,784.

(10/20/99)The Internal Revenue Service announced October 19, 1999, the cost-of-living
adjustments applicable to dollar limitations for benefits under qualified retirement plans
and to other provisions affecting such plans. The 2000 limit for 401(k) contributions
increases from $10,000 to $10,500. The defined benefit section 415 limit increases to
$135,000. The defined contribution section 415 limit remains unchanged at $30,000, and the
annual compensation limit increased from $160,000 to $170,000. The limit for highly
compensated employees increases from $80,000 to $85,000. A link to the full text of
IR-1999-80 will be posted here as soon as available on the IRS site.

(10/20/99) The Third Millennium Cash Balance Pension Plan Survey (October 1999)
was commissioned by the non-partisan Generation X advocacy group Third Millennium:

(10/20/99) Social Security Commissioner Kenneth S. Apfel announced a 2.4 percent Social
Security increase for 2000. Click
here for the press release. A fact sheet showing the effect of the various automatic
adjustments is available by clicking
here.

(10/19/99) Click
here to read about the recently founded Association of Workers Compensation
Professionals (AWCP).

(10/19/99) The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) released a
press release with the names of the group of health plans from across the nation that
have earned NCQA's new 'Excellent' Accreditation status.

(10/18/99) Hoover's Online provides a great reference source -- The
List of Lists -- a compilation of links to external lists at a variety of sources
that rank companies and people in a number of ways.

(10/18/99) President
Clinton announced on October 12 that the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and
Research (AHCPR), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the U.S. Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA) will fund a set of research studies to help public
health insurance programs and health care delivery systems improve the quality of, and
access to, health care for low-income children. Overall funding will total $9.1 million
over three years for nine research projects.

(10/14/99) The Association of Private Pension and Welfare Plans' amicus
brief in Georgia Pacific vs. Lyons, an 11th Circuit (Fla/Ga/Ala) case, in which
"the principal issue on appeal involves the correct method of calculating lump sum
payments under a cash balance pension plan" is posted on their site.

(10/13/99) Behind
the Pension Tension at IBM, an interview with Olivia Mitchell, director of
Whartons Pension Research Council, looks at the pros and cons of cash-balance plans
and how they fit into companies long-range strategy.

(10/12/99) The Birkbeck Pensions Economics & Finance Faculty and their
collaborators from the Department of Economics, Birkbeck College, University of London,
has established a Web site called Pensions@Birkbeck.
It also provides a link to the Pensions Institute at Birkbeck College Web site.

(10/11/99) Click
here to read a short description of the best employee "perk" ever offered
(in the humble opinion of this What's New page manager).

(10/08/99) Click
here for the article of the week from Lawyers Weekly USA: "HMO Can Be Sued
for Medical Malpractice Not Preempted by ERISA" by Jennifer W. Mathews. Various
cases involved are reviewed briefly.

(10/6/99) On October 4, 1999, Paul Fronstin, Senior Research Associate with EBRI spoke
with NPR's Julie Rovner about a new study from the Census Bureau showing that the number
of people without health coverage rose by one million last year and now stands at over 44
million. Click
here to listen to the interview.